Proposal talk:Sloped kerb

Comments from article

Instead of adding possibly several special tags for the many kinds of mobility enhancing features, would it not be better to come up with some set of general tags for tagging the suitability for the mobility impaired (which in itself sounds like one more perfect rationale for building the osm)? Tags that could be used on almost any feature, be it a footway, highway, building, a toilet or anything conceivable? A clumsily named tag would be then "accessibility = easy/aided/slope/no/difficult", but not being a native speaker someone else would need to come up with a better name. Coin that with some other tags to possibly describe how the feature has been made impaired-aware.

I also think that it wouldn't work, using your proposed tag as a way; how would you tell what kind of way is it if it the highway-tag already had the value 'sloped_curb'? A tag 'curb=sloped' would be acceptable, applied to a way or a node of a way or ways. Alv 07:53, 6 March 2008 (UTC)

I assume you are planning to map footpaths/sidewalks distinct from the roads they border. Sloped curbs are access points to roads, which suggests using nodes, but since it's important to note which side of the road they are, I think they're best tagged as ways leading to a shared node at the centre of the road — rather like a motorway on-ramp. Typically there'd be a corresponding curb on the opposite side of the street, but I imagine in many cases (especially when some of the slopes were built for vehicle driveways) one might allow a short stretch on the road itself to find the next "on-ramp". I'd tag the ways that traverse the road as "highway=crossing" even though crossings are normally nodes. Lorp 05:02, 12 March 2008 (UTC)

It might be advisable to not use a non-Atlantic portable word such as curb or kerb for this. Bruce89 02:15, 13 March 2008 (UTC)

In the UK, and surely also elsewhere, particuarly in suburban areas - dropped kerbs are used for virtually every private driveway. I take it this is not the intention for this tag proposal?

Actually they are more interesting whereever you might want to cross the street: At pedestrian crossings, at zebra crossings, at junctions without designated crossings for pedestrians. --Lulu-Ann 15:52, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

I would prefer to add sloped_curb=both/one/no (both sides, one side of the road) to the crossing=zebra/traffic_lights/* --Lulu-Ann 14:28, 6 March 2009 (UTC)

I concur with Lorp; at a four-way intersection, the four potential crossings can each have very different characteristics of the way and of the signage and any traffic signals. Some may be marked, some may not be marked (or even allowed). Walk signals may facilitate crossing the major street but not the minor cross streets. Each should be coded as a way, highway=crossing, with a node intersecting the street being crossed. And then the nodes that link each end to the sidewalk/footway network should be tagged appropriately. It is not unusual in the US to have sloped curbs supporting some but not all of the crossings at an intersection. Route planning needs full detail. EdH 4:06 17 October 2009 (UTC)

Sloped curbs ( 0 cm ) are good for wheelchair drivers, but dangerous for blind persons. That's why in Germany there are many curbs at 3 cm: Easy to cross with a wheelchair and easy to discover with a blind cane. We definitely need a tag to identify this compromise. Lulu-Ann

please change curb to kerb

and remove this afterwards. Curb is American English, we agreed to use British English for ease of editing (not having to wonder which way it is).

All curbs lowered

As my community has decided to lower all curbs, I would have more amenity=sloped_curb POIs in the map than other amenitys and nodes for ways all toghether. I doubt that this makes sense if rendered. I see more need to add a ramp tag to the highway=steps. --Lulu-Ann 15:55, 12 August 2008 (UTC)

Lulu-Ann, can you explain more what you mean by "my community has decided to lower all curbs"? To me, the 'curb' is the transition between one elevation and another, most commonly referring to the steep walled step between a sidewalk and a street. The sidewalk is usually raised 5" or more inches from the street. So will all transitions now be sloped (so there is a slope instead of a sharp vertical step)? Or will all sidewalks be at the same elevation as the street? If the end result is that there is no effective wheelchair barrier between the two, then I can certainly see that you want to tag the exceptions only, which would be only those places where there are barriers (steps), and then note where there are ramps for those barriers. --Aenw 03:17, 25 October 2009 (UTC)

Standard hight here is 11cm. At each pedestrian crossing and next to all street crossings it is lowered to 3cm (German norm, so wheelchairs can cross and blind persons with a white cane can feel the difference). So there is actually everywhere a chance to cross the street with a wheelchrair where it could be needed. --Lulu-Ann

use british English

"Curb" is AE, in BE use "kerb". Please change this in the whole wiki where you can find it for consistency reasons. -- Dieterdreist 12:14, 21 September 2010 (BST)

kerb=raised/lowered

I have been using kerb=raised/lowered here, using lowered for crossings and raised for bus stops. The problem with sloped_curb is that it doesn't say which way it's slopes.

There's also a street round by me where for the entire length of the street the kerb is lowered and edged with tactile paving - so in this case there is no slope.--Pobice 00:42, 1 December 2010 (UTC)

Yes, I have switched to using kerb=lowered as well instead of this. It's well worth pointing out that amenity=sloped_curb is only used 6 times, while sloped_curb=* is used 3295 times and kerb=* is used 1409 times. I would say we should deprecate this proposal in favor of kerb=*, and at some point retag the sloped_curb tags to use kerb. -- Joshdoe 13:22, 9 April 2011 (BST)